Our homes are our sanctuaries and they’re the one place where we know we can keep our families safe and healthy.
One of the biggest issues that the average household face,s without even realizing it, is mold, and even with the cleanest house, it’s a nasty thing that can still be lurking.
With mold in your home, your family can be at risk, and even if you can’t see or smell it, you may be breathing it.
Either the growth of mold could be taking over the house or the airborne spores that come off of it could be ingested by members of your household, but whatever the cause, you need an air purifier to make it less of a threat.
What is the best air purifier for mold and what do you need to look for when choosing one?
The correct purifier can help remove the odor that mold leaves in the air but more importantly, remove the airborne mold spores that are floating around the home.
Choosing one that has the right type of filter and is a suitable size for your home is the first step in defeating this common household threat.
Due to a full market of air purifiers and loads of products that don’t deliver on their promises, we’ve made this buying guide to separate the good from the bad.
With our expert help, we can show you the best air purifier for mold, and those that came close behind. We’ve found the top recommendations for the most effective tool in treating mold, removing spores, and ensuring the air that your family breathes is clean and safe.
These days, there are loads of products out there promising to purify the air and remove mold, but not all of them can step up to the plate. We’ve searched far and wide to come up with the best air purifier for mold and mildew (and everything in between) so your family can start to breathe the quality air that it deserves.
Best Air Purifier For Mold – Reviews & Buying guide for 2020
best overall: Alen BreatheSmart Flex Air Purifier
Type: Compact
Size: 700sq ft
Filters: HEPA, Pollen, Dust, Smoke, Activated Carbon
Air Quality Sensors: No
Connectivity: No
If the quality of air in your home is your most important goal, you’ll love everything about the Alen BreathSmart Flex Air Purifier.
This powerful purifier cleans 700 square feet every 30 minutes when you set it to turbo mode and it features various filters and activated carbon to make sure your home’s air is as fresh as can be.
Although an expensive option, you’ll notice results instantly once it gets going, and it does so much more than just treating mold in the house.
The sheer range of pollutants and allergens that this purifier works with is what makes it our favorite pick. With just one Alen BreatheSmart Flex Air Purifier, you can get rid of pollen, dust, smoke, mold, and pet dander, along with anything else that might be lurking in the air.
It’s not just the best air purifier for mold spores, but everything else as well, and guarantees you the cleanest air you’ve ever breathed at home.
The only thing missing from this air purifier is an air quality sensor. Considering most modern air purifiers have the ability to show the quality of the air you’re breathing, you’d hope that Alen would install one on theirs.
Everything else seems so modern on the Flex Air Purifier but this has been a major sore point for customers who were hoping it had a sensor included.
The Alen BreatheSmart Flex Air Purifier features an h13 true HEPA filter capable of capturing 99.97% of airborne particles, and it absorbs harmful chemicals found around the home as well.
With four fan speeds, sleep mode, and an energy-efficient power rating, you can feel good whenever it’s running. Running with WhisperMax Technology, you won’t hear a thing while it cleans, and you’ll be able to sleep soundly through the night knowing it’s working hard for you.
Priced at around $350 when you shop on Amazon, it’s one of the more expensive choices, but by far the most powerful.
With a one year limited warranty and thousands of happy customers who can testify for just how fast and well it works, the Alen BreatheSmart Flex Air Purifier is the most obvious choice when you want the best HEPA air purifier for mold and all the other nasties in your home’s air.
Runner Up: Silver Onyx Air Purifier
Type: Compact
Size: 500sq ft.
Filters: HEPA, Mesh, Activated Carbon
Air Quality Sensors: Yes
Connectivity: No
The Silver Onyx Air Purifier is the best room air purifier for mold if you’d prefer something mid-range priced and without the need to cover such a large space.
With a 500 square foot purifying capacity, it uses a range of filters to clean the air, including a true HEPA H13 charcoal filter. This works with pet dander, dust, mold spores, odors, and regular household dust, keeping whatever room it’s in clean and fresh.
The best thing about the Silver Onyx is its air quality sensor, a feature that’s not always as common in cheaper models of purifiers. Equipped with a PM2.5 sensor, it adjusts the airflow levels as needed, so that you’re always getting the correct amount of purification.
This takes the guesswork out of what setting it should be on and means you don’t have to give it a second thought as it’s doing all of the purifying on its own.
However, as a cheaper option, you can expect some things to be lacking. The most obvious fault is how hard it is to open if you need to clean it out or change the filter.
Some of the parts required to be removed feel as though they’re going to snap at any minute when you touch them, which can make you feel uneasy about attempting to clean it at all.
Considering how often the filter needs cleaning and replacing, this is a pretty big downside, but to be expected at this price.
The Silver Onyx Air Purifier features a UV sanitizer, ionizer, and activated carbon filter, so in addition to its HEPA filter, it’s busy doing a lot else in your home.
The HEPA filter captures 99.97% of pollutants and those as small as 0.3 microns, including mold spores, which means even those not visible by the naked eye. There are five levels of advanced filtration to choose from, or you can let it run on auto-mode and have the sensor guiding it instead.
Priced at around $150 for the purifier, it’s one of the more affordable options that still has all of the desirable features. The Silver Onyx Air Purifier is available for the best price on Amazon, which includes free shipping and free returns, should you have any issues with it.
To see how amazing clean air can be at home without spending a fortune, the Silver Onyx is a great choice.
Alternative 1: Levoit Core 300 Air Purifier
Type: Compact
Size: 219sq ft.
Filters: HEPA, Activated Carbon
Air Quality Sensors: No
Connectivity: No
For homes with a little less space to work with but still in need of fresher air, something compact like the Levoit Core 300 Air Purifier will be more your style.
This compact air purifier works best in spaces less than 219 sq ft. and relies on Vortexair Technology to create a powerful airflow that makes the room a lot healthier and safer.
With a HEPA filter running alongside several other types of filters, it’s great for not just mold and spores, but all of the other allergens a household might encounter.
By far the best thing about the Levoit Core 300 Air Purifier is how quietly it runs. When operating on sleep mode, it only creates 24db of noise, which means it’s virtually silent.
There’s no chance of a noisy machine keeping you awake just for the benefit of fresh and clean air, so you can run it while you sleep without a bother. For light sleepers, this is a huge advantage that the Levoit has that others might not.
As a cheaper type of air purifier, you won’t get all of the fancy bells and whistles if you choose the Levoit. It suits only a 219sq ft. home, there are only three speeds for it to go between, and there’s no air quality sensor.
Although it won’t affect how well it cleans the air, it does take some of the automation out of a product like this, so consider if it’s worth spending extra to get a more modern type of purifier.
Other noteworthy features worth discussing are the activated carbon filter and ultra-fine pre-filter that trap pollutants and allergens before they even reach the powerful H13 True HEPA filter.
The air purifier also uses a UV ionizing light that helps clean the air from ozone and secondary pollution. Levoit makes replacement filters for their Core 300 Air Purifier for around $20 each, and they promise a long service life on the unit itself.
If you’re looking for the best air purifier for dust and mold under $100, this would be our top pick, as it’s priced at around $99 with free shipping when you shop on Amazon. Although it might not be the most powerful air filter, it’s great for homes that don’t have a lot of issues with air cleanliness.
The Levoit Core 300 Air Purifier is prompt at getting rid of mold spores and making your home safer and healthier, so it’s worth a shot if you’re shopping on a budget.
Alternative 2: Hathaspace Air Purifier
Type: Standing unit
Size: 350sq ft.
Filters: HEPA, Cold Catalyst, Antibacterial
Air Quality Sensors: Yes
Connectivity: No
Hathaspace has created more than just an air purifier with this product, but a product that also eliminates odor from the air. Anyone with a mold problem will know how overwhelming the smell can be, so having this added protection against it can be a godsend.
The air purifier can clean a 350sp ft. space twice in one hour, and there’s no need for you to do anything, as it runs quietly in the background keeping your home clean and fresh.
According to customers, the air quality sensor was a major bonus with this air purifier. Hathaspace has built in the sensor that works automatically to show you the air quality in your home and uses a light display to tell you its current status.
The light changes between green for healthy through to yellow and red for polluted, and then it adjusts its fan speed in real-time to solve the problem.
However, the unit is pretty large compared to other purifiers on the market, and when you consider that it only works with spaces up to 350 square feet, you might expect it to be a little smaller.
Unlike others, it can’t sit on a benchtop or somewhere up high and away from prying hands, so it’s probably not the best choice if you have kids or pets. For the price, you’d expect something more powerful and compact, which is where this one loses some points.
There are lots of great features in this air purifier that make it a standout, including a range of filters including a true HEPA filter, activated carbon filter, cold catalyst filter, antibacterial filter, and ionizer.
With all of them working together, they capture both large and minuscule particles, including mold and its airborne spores, so the air in your home will be noticeably cleaner within the first hour.
To get your hands on the Hathaspace Air Filter and see what difference you can notice, head to Amazon for the best price of around $170, thanks to a current promotion.
This includes free shipping to your door and a lengthy two-year warranty plus ongoing customer support from the American owned company.
If you don’t mind a bulkier purifier working in a smaller room, the Hathaspace Air Purifier has a range of filtration systems that can deliver the cleanest air you’ve ever breathed indoors.
Alternative 3: Blueair Classic 680i
Type: Standing unit
Size: 700sq ft.
Filters:
Air Quality Sensors:
Connectivity: WiFi, Alexa
A large space requires a large filter, and if you want a commercial level air cleaner to suit, our favorite is the Blueair Classic 680i. This air purifier is a large, standing unit measuring 26 x 20 x 13 inches and capable of cleaning rooms up to 700 square feet in size.
The Blueair Classic 680i features a high clean air delivery rate and runs almost silently, capable of removing mold spores, pet dander, and dust from the air, as well as eliminating odors.
The biggest bonus of this air purifier, other than its power, is how it can connect to your home or office’s Wi-Fi. This means you can integrate it into a smart home and command it through your Alexa or other type of control hub.
There’s no need to ever touch it as it’ll be all voice commanded, or you can set it on auto mode and let the built-in sensor for the work for you.
The size is a huge disadvantage with this unit, as well as the high price tag, making it out of reach for most consumers.
Although it does an effective job of cleaning the room, it would be hard to find somewhere safe and spacious enough to put it. If you’re spending this much, some modern styles are more compact and could be purchased in a twin set, that might give you just as powerful of a clean.
There are loads of cool features on this air purifier from Blueair, including a control panel, three fan speeds, auto-detect air quality sensor, and multiple filters, all housed in a durable steel body.
Along with the HEPA filter, you’ll also get an activated coconut carbon filter working just as hard, so all mold spores and other pollutants will be removed swiftly and efficiently from the air that your family breathes.
If you’re after a commercial strength air purifier and don’t mind the added bulk, you can get the Blueair Classic 680i for around $900 on Amazon.
This includes free shipping, free returns, and a seriously impressive five-year limited warranty. When you want just one air purifier to do the job, the Blueair Classic 680i is by far the most powerful and capable, so if you can afford to pay the price, you won’t be disappointed.
The FAQs of Air Purifiers for Mold
Mold is a common household problem that can occur even in the cleanest of homes, and an air purifier is the best way to reduce the harm it does.
If you have a mold problem at home and need an air purifier to make your air clean again, we’ve answered some popular questions that can explain how it all works.
How Does An Air Purifier For Mold Work?
Mold creates airborne spores that can be ingested by people or attach to their skin, and along with these spores, there are other pollutants like pet dander and dust that are found in the air of the common home.
An air purifier uses a fan to suck the air into the device, pass it through several filters, and then release the fresh and clean air back into the room.
What Type Of Mold And Mildew Do They Filter?
An air purifier can filter out any microscopic particles of mold and mildew that are in the air, provided it has the right filter, but they can’t remove the existing mold issues.
An air purifier can trap and kill live spores that come from mold and help to deodorize the smell, however, to remove mold completely from the home, you’ll have to deal with the root cause of the growth.
Do Air Purifiers Deodorize Air?
There are some air purifiers with deodorizing functions that keep the air smelling clean as well as trapping and killing mold spores.
An activated carbon filter helps attract the particles and odors that are in the room and absorbing them. If you’re interested in a purifier that also works with smells, choosing one with an activated carbon filter is a must-have.
How Large Of A Room Can You Filter?
The size of the space that an air purifier is capable of filtering depends entirely on the model. Most standard purifiers work by changing the air in the room at least twice per hour, and each is capable of doing this in different sized rooms.
The most common range that air purifiers work with is 200 square feet for compact home devices and up to over 1,000 square feet for commercial-grade systems.
How Much Electricity Do They Consume?
Depending on the size of the air purifier and the setting they’re operating on, these units can use between 30 to 250 watts of electricity every hour.
If you run a larger size air purifier continually for the entire year, you could expect to pay a couple of hundred dollars in power bills for this appliance alone.
The Clean Home Your Family Deserves
There’s no better feeling than knowing your family is living in a healthy and safe environment, and when you can ensure it with just one simple appliance, it’s even better.
If you have a mold growth problem or just want to remove some of the common air pollutants that exist in the home, an air purifier is the simplest solution.
Our recommendations cover all sizes, shapes, and features of air purifiers so you can choose the one that best suits your household’s needs for air cleanliness.
With just one simple appliance, you’ll sleep better at night knowing the air your family breathes is of the highest quality, and know that you’re doing all you can to keep them healthy.